Free first-person horror game
Northbury Grove is a free first-person horror and survival game for Windows from the Scythe Dev Team. It's the first in the planned series of games in the Scythe Saga Universe.
You've arrived early for the Rock the Warehouse festival, but when one of your friends goes missing, you're compelled to go and look for her. The graphics are highly atmospheric and have an old-school, VHS-tape effect. You’ll need to have equal measures of courage, ingenuity and luck if you’re going to get out alive. If you're a fan of first-person horror mysteries, also check out Fears to Fathom and EXsynchronos.
The influences
The developers wear their influences on their sleeves. The storyline and graphics of Northbury Grove are directly influenced by classic horror slashers such as Friday the 13th and Halloween.
Gameplay
The attention to detail that the developer has shown in Northbury Grove is outstanding. You have a great deal of freedom to move around the festival grounds, car park and warehouse. You can even occasionally find a clue to help you move the game forward.
It’s particularly impressive that when you get killed and respawn, items that you previously picked up are moved to different locations. By building that into the game, it becomes less repetitive.
The VHS effect
The VHS effect adds to the 70s/80s horror flick atmosphere. However, the developer is aware of a potential issue on monitors with 4K resolution or higher, so they recommend that you either play the game in windowed mode at standard resolution or toggle the VHS effect off entirely in the pause menu.
Our take
Everything about Northbury Grove is so well done that it's difficult to believe that this is Scythe Dev Team’s debut game. The smoothness of the graphics, the original background music and the overall gameplay all make Northbury Grove a game you have to play.
We’re particularly impressed with the attention to detail in the game mechanisms. When your character dies and gets respawned, items you'd collected go to different locations, avoiding repetition. We’re looking forward immensely to the next instalment in the anthology.
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